Librarian Downgrading at Marathon County PL Sparks National Debate

Lynn Blumenstein & Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 3/5/2008

• Three librarian positions to be paid $10K less
• Budget stagnant, reference questions down
• Director, staffer disagree

As expenses rise faster than budget increases, and some traditional work for librarians like reference decreases, the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL), Wausau, WI, has downgraded three of its four MLS positions, provoking heated discussions among librarians nationwide. MCPL has reclassified one out of four Librarian I positions as a “lead librarian,” while the salary will be maintained at $46,000; the three “customer service librarians” will be paid $36,000, which means salary cuts for the three Librarian I positions (there is one vacancy). The changes will take place in the central library in June; the eight branches have always been staffed by paraprofessionals. The savings represent less than 1% of the library’s $3.62 million budget.

MCPL’s FTE staff has declined from 56.48 in 2003 to 53.05 this year, its budget increases in the past five years have been modest (2%-3%), while health costs have risen 16% and mandatory salary increases are 3% a year. Per capita spending is under $28. Marathon County supervisor Mort McBain told LJ that, with Internet self-service, the library had handled 57 percent fewer reference questions than in the previous years. Because the funding hasn’t kept up, “we have to be efficient,” he said.

Director defends reorganization
MCPL director Phyllis Christensen told LJ that the reorganization plan, affecting all staffing levels, has been in the works since 2003. “We’re not in 1986 anymore,” she said, characterizing the lead librarian’s job as keeping up with trends, bringing ideas to management, pursuing grant opportunities, developing program curricula, doing community research and outreach, and performing “some desk work.” Other librarians will handle “intermediate-level” work. The library had seven MLS librarians in 2003, according to the Everest Herald.

In a message posted on a Wisconsin librarians’ mailing list, Christensen said she questioned that staff is being “victimized.” She noted that librarians are no longer needed to do original cataloging or indexing, and that non-librarian staffers had redesigned the library web site and run Young Adult programs. “I’m dismayed to hear that the library profession frowns on a reorganization that is fiscally responsible and adequately reconciles multiple aspects of staffing and budgeting,” she wrote.

Marathon staffer frustrated
Sharyn Heinli, a 30-year veteran of MCPL is one of three central library MLS staffers affected by the move. “It devalues the profession and the MLS degree,” she told LJ. “It looks like it’s the same job to me, it’s just less money.” She recently has implemented instant messaging reference, started a library team wiki, and developed program curricula for digital photography, valid health sites, and other topics. “I love learning; technology’s easy for me,” said Heinli. “There’s some ageism here. They want young, tech-savvy people; they’ve even instituted a typing test.” She said she’s heard complaints from people who approach her “on the street.” Pages are doing the weeding, she said, and people tell her they use a nearby academic library more and more to get decent service. “I’m tired of what’s happening to this profession. It’s not just about me and my colleagues.”

While some libraries have downgraded open positions, the demotion of existing workers seems to have struck a chord both nationally and locally. In a letter to the Wausau Daily Herald, resident Jeffrey Graveen commented, “It is amazing how easily people can take away the income of someone else and feel good about what they have accomplished… The county doesn’t need to increase taxes, just cut the cost of labor by 20 percent. Start with [supervisor McBain’s] salary and work down the list until the budget balances.”